clorox

[rainhill]

i have a 27x48 AG pool . my ? is how much bleach do i add to start up for the season.. it is not really green but very cloudy...

[CarlD]

Hi.
I assume you mean a 27' round above ground vinyl pool. If the water is 4' deep, it's 17,000 gallons.

Is it greenish cloudy or brown cloudy or white cloudy?

Is your filter running yet?

You'll need to get the following tests--a pool store should do them, but if you invest in a good test kit you won't need them, or the expensive chemicals they try to sell you.

FC: Free Chlorine--the good stuff

CC: Combined Chlorine/Chloramines--the used up stuff the smells like chlorine

or TC: Total Chlorine. TC = FC + CC and if it doesn't a test is wrong.

pH: That's how acid or alkaline your pool is. Target is 7.3-7.8

TA or T/A: Total Alkalkinity--this keeps pH from bouncing around. Should be 8--125, but in a vinyl pool it can go to 180 with no problem.

Ca or CH: Calcium, Calcium Hardness, Hardness. In a vinyl pool can be 0 to 500 with no problem. Should be 200-400 in a concrete or plaster pool

CYA: Cyanuric Acid or Stabilizer or Conditioner. Inhibits Chlorine breakdown so it lasts longer. Too much though and starts to inhibit chlorine from doing its job. Should be 30-50ppm in general.

Here, most folks chlorinate with ordinary bleach. If you get the large jugs of ultra bleach (1gal, 46oz) it should add about 4.5 ppm to your 17,000 gallon pool--but algae will consume that if you have it.

We raise pH with ordinary 20 Mule Team Borax, lower it with Muriatic Acid (at Home Depot ) and raise total alkalinity with Arm&Hammer baking soda.

Vinyl pool owners don't add calcium, and CYA has to be gotten from a pool store.

Read everything you can here and at PoolSolutions.com--Ben's general web site.

[Watermom]

I agree with everything Carl said above (as usual) except that you sometimes can buy cya at someplace like Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. It may be labeled as stabilizer or conditioner. Check the ingredient label and if it says cyanuric acid or isocyanuric acid, it is the right stuff.

Watermom

[muundance]

I have a fiberglass pool, 10,000 gallons. The pool store told us not to use clorox in it, due to staining. Is this true? Also, would the above chemical standards be the same for my pool?

[JohnT]

I have a fiberglass pool, 10,000 gallons. The pool store told us not to use clorox in it, due to staining. Is this true?

Absolutely not! The pool store has the exact same thing in jugs labeled "Liquid Shock", just more concentrated.

[muundance]

Thank you! How much chlorine do I use for a 10,000 gal. pool and how often? I have another question. I just accidentally had to refill about 1/3 of my pools water. The color is still green after adding floculant and vacuuming to waste. What do I need to do now? When the water was low, I noticed that the walls were brown stained. Could this be causing the green color, since we've shocked it 3 times since opening it? Also, do pool stores always manually test water with tablets? I thought they used a machine, but was surprised to see them doing a lot of manual testing.